>>5303469>>5303469Several masked doctors covered from head to toe walk around, brewing mixtures, operating on mandragorans, and placing their bodies in bags to throw them away.
"He's convulsing! Doctor! He's going to break the chains!"
"Uuurgh-" a nearby Mandragoran was about to stand up while undergoing surgery, yet the preemptive swing of an iron axe to his head was used to kill it before things could get any worse.
You would call that a waste of human life if there was any humanity left on him.
"Are you aware of what a Mandragora is?" Bolzack holds a vile up, observing if there was any progress in his experiments.
"Never heard of it. Vlad?"
"It's a plant that resembles a humanoid form. Never seen one either, but legend has it that whoever pulls it from the ground while it's sleeping will die from it's horrible, ear shattering screech. With its roots exposed to sunlight, the Mandragora also dies instantly."
"Which is exactly why it's so difficult to cure my people. The disease came from the borders of my land a few years ago, and only grew more rampant as the Mandragorans were possessed at night, and infected more people by the day." Bolzack completes your statement with additional insight.
The timeline adds up to when Conrad unleashed the plague throughout Midland...
"Rumor has it that should the plants nutrients be extracted, it can rejuvenate people, feel them with youth and vigor, and perhaps, even treat the Mandragoran disease. But with them dying from human touch, I have encountered and experimented with collecting them in many ways, all of them resulting in my teams being wiped out.
"So what's the alternative?"
"To extract their serum without them going to waste, the Mandragora plant needs to grow into a tree and have its heart extracted. I managed to recover a piece of one in an infested village, but only with an entire heart, we can put an end to that cursed Mandragoran possession."
"Get to the point already." The impatient Guts inputs his say in the matter, uncaring of the condition of Bolzack's people.
>So you want us to look for a Mandragoran tree?>How fast does it spread?>Is there no way of staying alive after hearing it's scream?>Do you mind if I observed your progress with the medicine? I'm familiar with plants, maybe I could provide you some insight.>Can the Mandragora also rejuvenate the mind?>Write-in. 